The $1.9 billion bonding bill passed last week by the Minnesota Legislature includes upwards of $11 million for “costs incurred” during May’s Minneapolis riots.
The bill appropriates more than $5 million from the trunk highway fund and $3.5 million from the general fund to the Department of Public Safety “for costs incurred related to the response to civil unrest in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.”
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Minnesota GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan has accused Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of abusing his power and threatened to file “a cease-and-desist order” against his office.
On Tuesday night, Felton Farms in Northfield, Minnesota, held a private MAGA rally with Eric Trump, where congressional candidate Tyler Kistner and Carnahan also made appearances. Carnahan, who accused Ellison of “using his office to play politics” and “threatening” the farm venue, announced that the Republican Party of Minnesota would be filing a cease-and-desist order against Ellison’s office.
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A study released by Education Minnesota, Minnesota’s teachers union, says that nearly one-third of the state’s educators are considering quitting their jobs due to stress and an overwhelming workload.
The study, which was conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 5, had 9,723 respondents, about one-sixth of the educators in the state, according to recent numbers. Overall, 29% of respondents said that they were “thinking about quitting or retiring,” with upwards of 70% saying they were feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
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A federal judge has upheld a Minnesota state court agreement that allows the counting of absentee ballots received up to seven days after Election Day.
Republicans had asked U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel to block the seven-day extension that said ballots postmarked on or before Election Day must be counted.
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More than 60 Minneapolis residents signed up to speak their minds at the two-hour virtual meeting, grilling council members on their “irresponsible rhetoric” and failure to adequately staff the Minneapolis Police Department.
“We should all know as adults that words such as ‘defund,’ ‘dismantle,’ and ‘abolish’ have severe consequences. We are a city in crisis and need action now,” said one resident who lives in the Loring Park neighborhood.
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It was not enough to allow the city to burn. Then it wasn’t enough to emasculate city law enforcement. Now the Minneapolis City Council is corrupting the absentee ballot count by stacking ballot boards with handpicked staff rather than following state law that requires regular ballot boards to include people from the major political parties. Hennepin County, the most populous in the state, is doing it, too.
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Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday a special session will take place Monday, Oct. 12, during which he intends to extend his peacetime emergency declaration for the seventh time.
In the governor’s Proclamation for Special Session, issued Oct. 7, Walz said an “extraordinary occasion” has ensued, and, therefore, “it is necessary to extend the COVID-19 Peacetime Emergency.”
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Gov. Tim Walz’s administration purchased a warehouse for $6.9 million in May to be used for the “temporary storage of human remains,” but the facility was recently converted into a storage space for vaccines and other medical supplies.
The facility was intended to serve as “a building where we can properly handle with dignity and respect and safety the bodies of Minnesotans who may fall victim to the coronavirus,” Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly said at the time of the purchase.
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A recall effort has been filed against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) over his mask mandate in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Minnesota Supreme Court will now review whether the grounds for recall stated in the petition are sufficient and meet statutory requirements. Two earlier efforts to recall Walz were dismissed by the supreme court because the petitions did not meet the legal standards to recall an elected official.
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The majority of attendees at President Donald Trump’s recent rally in Duluth, Minnesota, were not Republicans, the Republican National Committee said.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said 60% of attendees were not Republicans while another 20% were Democrats, according to data the GOP collected from voters during the event.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar said she resents anyone who does not think President Donald Trump is racist or a white supremacist.
Her comments were made during a Thursday MSNBC interview in reaction to the president’s Wednesday night rally in Duluth, Minnesota.
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Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis said he plans to file an appeal after a federal judge dismissed his lawsuit against the governor’s COVID-19 restrictions.
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In a letter sent Monday, House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt called on Secretary of State Steve Simon to conduct a “full and robust investigation” following allegations of systemic voter fraud in Minneapolis.
The letter was issued in response to a Project Veritas video released Sunday night that accused Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign of running a ballot-harvesting scheme out of two Minneapolis high-rises. A source quoted in the video claimed that one of Omar’s staffers is central to the operation and even pays voters for their ballots.
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U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has been linked to a massive illegal vote-buying scheme in an elderly community in her heavily Somali district in Minneapolis. The illegal ballot harvesting operation is just the latest in a growing list of federal crimes the self-avowed democratic socialist is alleged to have committed in recent years, including marrying her brother to commit immigration fraud and student loan fraud.
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President Donald Trump will campaign in Duluth on Wednesday, his campaign announced Friday, marking his third visit to the key swing state of Minnesota in recent weeks.
The campaign said Trump will speak at a Make America Great Again rally at the Duluth International Airport at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Doors will open at 2 p.m.
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The Minnesota Department of Health abruptly stopped reporting the current number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or in an intensive care unit in its daily situation update Thursday.
The Department of Health (MDH) publishes a situation update every morning at 11 a.m., but Thursday’s update was lacking one standard piece of information: current hospitalizations and ICU patients.
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The woman who assaulted an Alpha News journalist last month has been identified as 37-year-old Lauren Patricia Peterson and was charged this week in Hennepin County District Court.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Alpha News, Peterson faces charges of third-degree rioting, disorderly conduct, and two counts of fifth-degree assault.
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The Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF), a charity promoted by Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, helped free a 37-year-old man accused of raping an 8-year-old girl from jail.
The fund also bailed out a man who allegedly broke into the home of a 71-year-old woman and tortured her, and a man accused of curb stomping and robbing another man who walked with a cane the same day that George Floyd died. Records of the fund assisting these individuals and others were obtained by Alpha News in collaboration with the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).
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A Minnesota law firm said it plans to launch a legal challenge against the practice of conducting “critical race training” in government agencies, schools and corporations.
“Most of the ‘diversity’ and ‘anti-racism’ training being conducted today is Marxist and anti-American, as well as racist, in its fundamental premise that whites are inherently bad and must be subordinated to minorities because of systemic racism,” the Upper Midwest Law Center said in a press release issued Thursday.
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A Minnesota man accused of joining the Islamic State group has been returned to the United States and faces a terrorism charge after spending more than a year in Syrian custody with alleged IS fighters, according to documents unsealed Wednesday.
Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, 23, made his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, appearing via video from a cell. Authorities say he was vacationing with his family in Morocco in 2015 when he secretly booked a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, and then traveled to Iraq and Syria, where he joined IS.
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Republican Kendall Qualls will receive the endorsement of the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police during a Tuesday morning press conference, his campaign said in a press release.
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Dr. Deborah Birx, a top official on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, advised Minnesotans to wear masks inside their homes during a recent press conference in St. Paul.
“It really does come down to every Minnesotan following these common sense path[s] forward to ensure we protect each other, and really a lot of that pathway goes through wearing this mask not just in public but also in private if we need to protect others in the household,” she told reporters Sunday after a meeting with officials from the Minnesota Department of Health.
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Prior to President Trump’s arrival in Minnesota Monday, Governor Walz claimed in a virtual interview that he had warned Trump to avoid Minneapolis. Twin Cities PBS reporter Mary Lahammer uploaded a segment of Walz’s statement on Twitter.
“My activism started sixteen years ago with a presidential visit to Mankato, and in a few hours President Trump will visit Mankato, my hometown. I spent this weekend trying to tell the White House why it was a really bad idea to have President Trump go down and stand at the George Floyd Memorial, and use [it] as a backdrop for his campaign and ignite the pain and the anguish that we’re feeling in Minnesota.”
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President Trump visited Minnesota today as part of a push to counter Joe Biden’s campaign efforts in the state.
The president spoke to victims of the riots that rocked the state after the death of George Floyd, Breitbart reports. John Wolf, owner of a liquor store in Minneapolis told the story of how his business was targetted multiple times over the period of unrest, resulting in a million dollars in damages and lost merchandise. Wolf stated that he called police 10 times as rioters vandalized and looted his building, but no one came. “The feeling of helplessness that I had knowing that no one was coming was indescribable,” Wolf told the president. Wolf went on to say that “there’s nothing more important for elected officials than providing safety to residents and businesses. Without that, nothing works… I held up to my end. The city of Minneapolis didn’t.”
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Minnesotans must be 21 years of age or older to purchase tobacco products starting Saturday, according to twincities.com.
The new law puts the state in line with a similar federal law that raised the legal age to purchase tobacco to in December. E-cigarettes and vapes are included in the law, as well as cigars, chewing tobacco and cigarettes.
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This week, educators and parents wait with bated breath on Governor Tim Walz’s upcoming decision on a safe return to schools.
On the Facebook page, “Minnesota for a Safe Return to Campus”, the greatest concerns were mainly posted by educators. Death, unrealistic demands, a future lack of interest in teaching as a profession, and the inability to be with elderly loved ones were all consistent issues listed throughout the page.
A Minnesota lawmaker has asked the federal government to withhold federal transportation funds from the state if leaders continue to allow protesters to block highways.
“In the last few months, we have seen two of our primary interstates blocked by protesters, 35 and 94, with the acquiescence of state and local officials. While some arrests have been made, the penalty for this offense is low; it encourages others to protest in the same way,” Rep. Cal Bahr (R-East Bethel) said in a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign hired three full-time staffers this week to oversee its campaign operations in Minnesota.
According to ABC News, Ryan Doyle, who managed Keith Ellison’s campaign for attorney general, will serve as Biden’s Minnesota state director.
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A Minnesota House committee approved a resolution Tuesday declaring racism a statewide “public health crisis.”
The resolution passed out of the House Rules Committee and now heads to the House floor for debate, with a final vote expected for July 20.
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The Minneapolis Park Board plans to vote on repealing its nudity ordinance this week because the law contains “discriminatory language that targets female breasts.”
Park Board Commissioner Chris Meyer said repealing the ordinance will be voted on during a Wednesday meeting. According to Meyer, it’s already legal for “people of all genders” to be topless in Minneapolis, but women and transgender people can still be cited for going topless in parks and on parkways because of the Park Board ordinance.
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One of former President Barack Obama’s top health care officials said he asked Gov. Tim Walz to reclose all bars in Minnesota during a Sunday phone call.
Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he urged Walz and Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm to close “all of the bars to indoor service across the state of Minnesota” to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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A north Minneapolis Democrat said his constituents are “facing a real emergency” as the city continues to experience alarming levels of gun violence.
“Every Minnesotan deserves to be safe in their own neighborhood, but right now many people are experiencing gun violence at unsustainable levels,” Rep. Fue Lee (DFL-Minneapolis) said in a statement released Saturday. “The neighborhoods I represent in north Minneapolis are facing a real emergency.”
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President Donald Trump has rejected Gov. Tim Walz’s request for federal financial assistance to help rebuild portions of the Twin Cities that were destroyed by rioting.
Nearly 1,500 Twin Cities businesses were vandalized, burned, or looted during the late May riots, with current estimates of the damage exceeding $500 million.
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The Minnesota DFL Party launched a new ad campaign this week targeting key Republican state senators who are accused of “standing in the way of passing real police reform.”
Jason Lewis, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said in a recent interview that Democrats don’t “want reform” so much as they “want a political issue.”
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A survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Education found that the majority of parents would feel comfortable sending their children back to school this fall.
Between June 15 and July 6, the agency collected more than 130,000 responses to the informal survey, which was offered in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. A total of 64 percent of respondents said they would feel comfortable sending their children back to school in September. Of that 64 percent, 94 percent said they would send their children back to school full time.
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The Department of Justice announced the formation of a new Twin Cities Violent Crimes Task Force Wednesday in response to an “extraordinary spike in gun violence and violent crimes.”
Erica MacDonald, U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, said the task force will bring together federal and state resources to assist local law enforcement in investigating, arresting, and prosecuting individuals responsible for gun violence.
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Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis said parents should be refunded for property tax payments and tuition if schools aren’t allowed to reopen in the fall.
“The more we learn about COVID, the more it becomes apparent that we have done a huge disservice to our children in the way we have handled this virus. Research has proven that COVID presents minimal risks to young people. But what isn’t minimal is the toll this prolonged lockdown and social isolation has on our kids’ social, mental, and physical well-being,” Lewis said in a statement released Wednesday.
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Police are investigating a string of sexual assaults at a homeless encampment in a Minneapolis park, according to various news reports.
Since June 26, Minneapolis Park Police have received three reports of sexual assault in Powderhorn Park, where more than 850 people have set up a 560-tent encampment, according to KARE 11. Two of the assaults involved juvenile victims.
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A Republican lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require Minnesota to sell a facility it purchased for the storage of deceased COVID-19 patients.
Due to a projected surge in COVID-19 fatalities, the state of Minnesota spent $6.9 million in May to acquire a warehouse for the “temporary storage of human remains.” As of early June, however, the facility had yet to be used.
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Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan shared a post on social media over the Independence Day weekend calling Mount Rushmore a “symbol of white supremacy.”
“Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today. It’s an injustice to actively steal Indigenous people’s land, then carve the white faces of the colonizers who committed genocide,” said the post, which Flanagan shared on her Instagram.
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Gov. Tim Walz is expected to call another special session by the end of the week in order to extend his peacetime emergency powers.
House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) alerted members and staff in a Monday email about the likely special session.
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State Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska), a practicing physician, revealed Sunday that anonymous complaints were filed against him with the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice for his public comments on the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is one of the most important videos I’ve made and one of the hardest,” Jensen said in a video posted to Facebook. “Less than a week ago, I was notified by the Board of Medical Practice in Minnesota that I was being investigated because of public statements I had made.”
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Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who welcomed the destruction of a Christopher Columbus statue, chairs the board responsible for Capitol artwork and monuments.
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Gov. Tim Walz recently filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him regarding his use of emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed on May 28 by four members of the New House Republican Caucus, the Free Minnesota Coalition, and at least eight businesses across the state. The complaint argues that the governor does not have the authority to “suspend the constitutional rights of Minnesotans.”
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) introduced a bill last week that would create a “job guarantee program” at the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Workforce Promotion and Access Act, sponsored by Omar and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12), seeks to get more Americans “back to work in living-wage jobs created directly by the federal government.”
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Gov. Tim Walz has requested federal financial assistance to help the Twin Cities recover from more than $500 million worth of damage caused by rioting.
In a press release, Walz’s office said nearly 1,500 Twin Cities businesses were vandalized, burned, or looted during the late May riots, with current estimates of the damage exceeding $500 million.
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Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-04) praised FedEx and Nike for their efforts to pressure the Washington Redskins into changing the team’s “harmful” name and mascot.
“I have been working on this for almost a decade because I believe all people, including Native Americans, should be treated with dignity and respect – and not dehumanized as mascots,” McCollum said in a statement.
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Two Republican state senators asked the Minnesota Historical Society to repair and restore a Christopher Columbus statue that was torn down outside the Minnesota Capitol three weeks ago.
Although the incident took place in broad daylight and was recorded by countless news stations and reporters, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said last week the investigation remains ongoing.
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The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday declaring racism a “public health crisis.”
Commissioners Angela Conley and Irene Fernando introduced the resolution, which passed in a vote of 6-1.
“Ultimately this resolution is about the health and well-being of Hennepin County residents who have borne the brunt of racial discrimination and racial inequity through various different systems,” Conley said in a press release after the resolution passed.
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Three more Minnesotans are facing federal arson charges in connection to the late May riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Both Matthew Scott White, 31, and Mohamed Hussein Abdi, 19, were arrested on June 29 and charged with one count of arson.
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